Santa Fe New Mexican

Another shot

- By Lauran Neergaard

Dozens testing third shot for COVID-19 vaccine to combat new variations.

Dozens of Americans are rolling up their sleeves for a third dose of COVID19 vaccine — this time, shots tweaked to guard against a worrisome mutated version of the virus.

Make no mistake: The vaccines currently being rolled out across the U.S. offer strong protection. But new studies of experiment­al updates to the Moderna and Pfizer vaccines mark a critical first step toward an alternativ­e if the virus eventually outsmarts today’s shots.

“We need to be ahead of the virus,” said Dr. Nadine Rouphael of Emory University, who is helping to lead a study of Moderna’s tweaked candidate. “We know what it’s like when we’re behind.”

It’s not clear if or when protection would wane enough to require an update but, “Realistica­lly, we want to turn COVID into a sni±e,” she added.

Viruses constantly evolve, and the world is in a race to vaccinate millions and tamp down the coronaviru­s before even more mutants emerge. More than 119 million Americans have had at least one vaccine dose, and 22 percent of the population is fully vaccinated, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Much of the rest of the world is far behind that pace.

Already an easier-to-spread version found in Britain just months ago has become the most common variant now circulatin­g in the United States, one that’s fortunatel­y vaccine-preventabl­e.

But globally, there’s concern that first-generation vaccines may offer less protection against a different variant that first emerged in South Africa. All the major vaccine makers are tweaking their recipes in case an update against that so-called B.1.351 virus is needed.

Now experiment­al doses from Moderna and Pfizer are being put to the test.

In suburban Atlanta, Emory asked people who received Moderna’s original vaccine a year ago in a first-stage study to also help test the updated shot. Volunteer Cole Smith said returning wasn’t a tough decision.

“The earlier one, it was a great success and, you know, millions of people are getting vaccinated now,” Smith told the Associated Press. “If we’re helping people with the old one, why not volunteer and help people with the new one?”

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